Whitewashed part of the fence? (4)
I believe the answer is:
pale
'the fence?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pale that I've seen before include "Dim - wan" , "Containing little colour" , "A bit of fencing" , "Light-coloured" , "Stake, lacking colour" .)